What is recorded here

St Finan's Well on Drung Hill vanished without a surface trace, yet local memory claims water erupted the moment Finan was buried beneath Leacht Fhionain. People climbed the hill each last Sunday in July for dancing, feasting and cattle healing until the assembly faded early in the nineteenth century. The well may have been forgotten by maps, but it remains alive in the shape of that lost celebration.

No surface trace of this holy well, which is not marked on the OS maps, is now apparent. Known locally as St Finan's Well, it was located in the vicinity of Leacht Fhionain, a cairn and ogham stone, on Drung Hill (KE063-012----). Local tradition records that the well sprang up at the time of St Finan's burial beneath the cairn. A major Lughnasa pilgrimage-assembly formerly took place here on Domhnach na dTuras, the last Sunday in July. It included games, drinking, dancing and feasting, and a special cake was cut by a young couple. A fair was also held at the foot of the hill, and the water from the well was used to treat ailing cattle. The Drung Hill assembly appears to have died out during the first half of the nineteenth century (MacNeill 1962, 134-7). The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1071. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 31 July 2013

St Finan's Well is associated with St Finan, an early Irish saint linked to the Aran Islands and the monastery of Iona. The well's location near Leacht Fhionain, a cairn and ogham stone, suggests a long-standing tradition of veneration connected to the saint, who is believed to have been a 7th-century abbot and scholar.

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